Hi Tom,
Good luck mate. I've a similar story myself, worked my way up the corporate ladder until the business owner got so greedy with taking out money from the business that we eventually went into liquidation.
Spent the best part of the past 6 months applying for in excess of 200 jobs. The final straw for me was when I was told (and not for the first time) I was overqualified despite offering to accept a £17,000 pay cut.
A mate of mine suggested window cleaning and I too owe some gratitude to Dave the Window Cleaning Coach! Another mate has leant me a set of ladders and I've started out for myself four weeks ago with no more than £20 !!
I now have just under 60 customers and every week I get at least two new customers. I recently posted some advice on a thread called 'newbie', please have a look there .......and if you can't find it drop me a line !
Andrew